The Rams changed the way they are heading to Australia for Week 1 after sending four players on trial trips to work out how a late arrival might feel. Kevin Dotson, Kyren Williams, Xavier Smith and Tyler Davis made the long journey from Los Angeles to Melbourne first, and their experience helped shape the team’s plan for Rams Vs 49ers.
That matters now because the Rams are set to board a plane Tuesday night, land in Australia Thursday morning and then play the San Francisco 49ers at 10:35 a.m. local time after a night’s sleep. For readers in the United States, that is 5:35 p.m. PDT, which means the opener arrives while most of the league is still at home and the Rams are already in transit.
Dotson said the team essentially used the four as test runs. He and Williams made the first Australia trip in the spring, then Smith and Davis went later, and the club used what they felt in the air, after landing, during the stay and on the way home as anecdotal data for the trip plan. The flights were not small tests. The players endured a 16-hour flight to Melbourne and a 14-hour flight back, then described the whole thing as something they got through by settling in with several movies in lie-flat seats.
The decision to travel late was not made in a vacuum. Sean McVay said it came after consultation with Reggie Scott, and he framed the choice as one made with player welfare in mind. Xavier Smith said the Rams saw the London approach work last season and were trying to repeat the same blueprint, after staying on the East Coast following a game against the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore and then traveling to London the day before a game they won 35-7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That is where the plan gets interesting. The Rams are still choosing the exhausting option. Dotson said the trip would be draining no matter what, but he also said the team would be fine and that the rest they get in between should be enough. McVay was more measured, saying there are different approaches and theories and that he trusts the group, while adding that they will see whether it works out.
The San Francisco 49ers arrived in Australia last week, so the schedule gives the Rams less room to improvise once they land. After a night’s sleep, they will go straight into a season opener that doubles as a test of timing, recovery and habit as much as football. If the trial trips did what the Rams hoped, the payoff will be clear before the first snap; if not, the long flight will be only the start of the problem.
